As we are on the brim of a technological revolution (Industry 4.0), it is very clear that there is going to be major change in the way we live, work, and communicate with one another. The transformation is going to be one of its own kinds that humans would never have experienced before. Even though with its humongous complexity levels, it is believed to be bring in new opportunities for almost all stakeholders (the public and private sectors to academia and civil society) across the globe.

As compared to the previous industrial revolutions, the Fourth is evolving at an exponential rather than a linear pace. This is a major reason for such disruption in all most all the industries. This is also causing shortage of skilled talent in the international market. Today in many countries & industries, the most in-demand occupations or specialties didn’t even exist 5 or ten years ago. And this speed of change is set to accelerate.

The ways in which billions of people are connected by mobile devices, with extraordinary processing power and storage capacity, have gone beyond imaginable reach. In future, these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, DNA computing, crypto-currency, robotics, the Internet of Things, bio-printing, autonomous vehicles, nanotechnology, quantum computing, materials science, energy storage, and biotechnology.

The quick technological progresses and the digitization, are forcing businesses to transform their workplaces to ‘work-labs’. This is making it harder for employees to match their skill sets with the needs of employers. This is altering the way we work. The employees’ skills will need to keep pace with these changes.

The scale of the problem is varying from country to country. As per a survey, it has hit the Japan firms the most, where 81% of firms are having difficulty finding qualified employees. While in US 40% and Europe 12% of employers had trouble finding people with the required skills.

As machines get smarter and more capable of doing chores formerly done by humans, employees need to develop edge over machines, like critical thinking and creativity. The skill set is expected to change radically over next few years.

Considering the overall disruption that industries are undergoing, with current trends, competition for talent in most desired jobs such as Computer and Mathematical and Architecture and Engineering and other strategic and specialist roles will be fierce. And finding effectual ways of securing a talent pipeline will be a priority for virtually every industry. At present also most of these roles across industries and countries are already perceived as hard to recruit. The situation is expected to worsen significantly over next few years.

Digital Recruitment Marketing

Talent Acquisition is going through significant change as the war for talent takes off and employers need to communicate their brand’s value proposition through creative and innovative ways.

Off late recruitment has shifted from HR to Sales to a Marketing function. Any firm which creates a compelling employer value proposition around its brand and can clearly communicate its vision through different social touch points is more likely to emerge as a leader in the war for top talent.

If you are not attracting and engaging talent proactively then all that you find in the market are candidates looking for the next change who invariably meet less than 50% of your requirements/ specs from the hiring managers.

The services industry is gradually making a shift from a linear people based model to a more value based approach, Talent Acquisition also needs a shift from a hiring factory model to a more realistic brand and engagement model.

Organisations are now understanding go through a thorough data analysis exercise to identify leads, nurture talent, segment and brand this audience in a unique manner. Getting qualified leads and converting them into potential applicants is where the future is heading with people, process and technology at the forefront

Emerging areas in Digital Recruitment Marketing range from content marketing, social recruiting, recruiting analytics & Talent Relationship Management(TRM). This is the essence of digital recruitment marketing and we @ CrossTab create mobile apps which offer a platform to our clients to showcase their brand and value proposition they offer to employees.

Recruitment Experience(RX)

As a kid I was mesmerized watching Disney cartoons and the consistent happy viewing experience it created. There was clearly a difference between Disney and the rest of the cartoons as the recall for a good vs. bad experience was etched in the mind forever.

In my career as a recruitment alchemist I realized recruitment for long has been kept under the wraps to make it appear “fair and transparent” despite its shortcomings for bring subjective and prone to cognitive bias. This of course was justified by the hiring managers to take quick decisions rather that the focus on being accurate based on data.

As the war for talent intensifies more and more corporate firms are realizing the need to transform recruitment transactions to recruitment experience. A poor experience could potentially turn candidates and their whole social network off that brand for life.

At each touch point of the recruitment experience viz. Hiring Managers, Talent Acquisition Team, Application Tracking System(ATS), Online Tests et al we need consistent brand focus and the ability to track the metrics at least for organisations which have started shifting their mindset for recruitment as a sales function than an HR function. If so much is done about client experience how can we continue to ignore the recruitment experience which ultimately translates to higher sales.

We are entering a phase where algorithms will match the best suited roles offered by firms and mobile apps will have a mechanism to track and analyze a candidate response to a job. Needless to say if the brand is not perceived as a good experience its a matter of time before firms start loosing even the current high performance employees to competitors offering better recruitment experience.

I meet recruiters who argue that although we have tools to analyze candidate social and personal data but no way we can measure the recruitment experience so technically we can still game it by focusing on the numbers and not on the recruitment experience. I believe they are still playing catch up with data, however the recruitment experience will stay etched in your candidate’s memory like a good or bad cartoon forever.

Crosstab Recruitment Audit team can help your recruiters discover the right metrics to shift from just on boarding talent to ensuring there is a better recruitment experience for everyone in your firm. Please reach me at gautam@crosstab.in to discuss more.

Hello! Welcome to the first blog post on Crosstab’s newly revamped website!

So here we are with our ‘Hello World’ moment! You are reading our first blog post. We hope you like our new avatar. We have built the new website to bring to you a new range of services and our scientifically modified existing services. With this new website we aim to position ourselves as a top quality and high value provider and a game changer for our clients. It’s aimed at better collaboration with our partners, prospective clients and employees and have a dekko at our gamut of services around recruitment, reporting and mobile apps.

We are expanding our offices in Noida (India), UK and the US in the coming months. With our new services like career embellishment and handcrafting of the specs coupled with our strong focus to build Mobile Apps, we wish to bridge the gap existing in finding the right talent across the globe.

Today when workplaces have converted into work-labs, it is time that we understand that even recruitment has to be converted into Recruitment Marketing. We need to market the jobs and do a hard selling of the same to the candidates. Our passion to add value to both side of the EVP ( Employer/ Employee) value chain has pushed our limits higher.

We understand the need of the hour. In this fast paced world it is difficult for senior leaders to allocate time to embellish their LinkedIn profiles to explore their passion and build the right connections.

Keeping all this in mind we have designed our new set of services. We hope you will like our fresh new look!!!

We will be updating this blog on a regular basis to keep you in touch with all the new things happening in our world.